This was basically me growing up, only difference is I'm male. Only solution I ended up with was a whole ecosystem of coping mechanisms.
I tend to find that people end up figuring out what works for them just via trial by fire, which is unfortunate but effective I suppose. For example, I know my memory is extremely bad, so I don't bother remembering anything. I just assume my memory will fail me and set alarms and calendar reminders and leave my meds where I can see them and food on the main shelf and apps all on the home screen in folders etc. If it's not immediately visible, it simply doesn't exist. I completely stop conversations to take notes and such, even if it annoys people.
"Hold on, before you continue, let me write down a reminder for what you just told me to do." (Pulls out phone, unlock, find calendar app, carefully add date and time and description). "Ok done, what were you saying?"
That's just for my memory. I have other techniques for all the other problems I have.
Actually, a pro tip I discovered years ago, when live TV was the thing, and you had so so many unskippable ads. Either cut the sound or the visuals. Mute the TV during ad breaks is the easiest solution, it makes it much less overwhelming (buy now buy now buy now!!!). If you can't do that, try closing your eyes. I found that reducing sensory input by 50% really made it much more tolerable!
Honestly I just read things at random. Lots of places have "free trials" so to speak so you can figure out if it's for you. Some books I never thought I'd enjoy but ended up liking it
Yeah I have my own share of unhealthy stims for stressful situations… also seconded for having to know what caused a noise. Thankfully I'm pretty good at identifying sounds at this point, but the occasional investigation still occurs
Ok, I forgot about this one. Seconded to "tasting" bad textures. It's like I hate the texture of cheap carpet so much, I feel it with my entire body when I touch / hear it. The feeling of scraping your socks by accident on carpet… it's so dry and horrible. I just get someone else to do the carpet rubbing lol
Nice carpet I don't have this problem though, only the cheap stuff
Just to clarify any misunderstanding, I wasn't saying exposure therapy as a treatment in general is "torture yourself until you get used to it". I was (poorly, apparently) trying to say that I'm hesitant to deliberately increase exposure to sounds that cause me significant physical symptoms, especially since pushing through them can lead me with migraines for days.
I understand exposure therapy is usually gradual and controlled, and I'm sure it helps many people. My concern is that this seems more like sensory overload from sudden loud sounds, rather than fear or anxiety around specific sounds.
I genuinely appreciate the suggestion, I just don't think it's necessarily the right approach for my specific situation.
Misophonia is an extreme emotional and physical response to seemingly innocuous, repetitive sounds like chewing, lip-smacking, and even breathing.
It doesn't sound quite right, since it's more to do with the loudness of any sound, especially if it's sudden, rather than specific sounds. I think just loud sounds are overwhelming for me, and it causes me distress. I attributed it to autism sensory issues. Even just being in a loud room is very uncomfortable, but somewhat tolerable.
I don't see a specific need to expose myself to torture to "toughen up", so to speak. I wear earmuffs about 20% of the day, taking them off and putting them on as needed. If I experience too much loud sounds, I end up with extremely bad migraines and am unwell for days. Before I bought the earmuffs, this condition never improved, so I'm not sure exposure therapy would ever help in my instance.
Thanks for the advice though, I'm sure it might help somebody out there.
I'm not alone! Yeah I had this perfect wooden spoon… but someone put it in the dishwasher. It got all this "piling" lumpy and sad dense texture and became unusable. I never found a good replacement, only compromise spoons. My current spoon is too long, and the handle is too thin, and this will mildly bother me forever
Yeah I was looking at that. But I have prediabetes / insulin resistance, and in my local area, nobody cares until your pancreas completely kicks the bucket. Prevention of disease isn't really a thing here. That's why I went out and bought my own sensor, just to see what was going on. It was useful for seeing like, wait why did my blood sugar spike after breakfast? Oh I didn't realise overcooked oats were high gi. I changed it to raw oats in warm milk which is much smoother on the graph. But I would never qualify for that device because my problems don't show up on the 3 month A1C test. And after I optimised the 3 foods that were more spike-y than the rest, I had no use for the inaccurate glucose monitor.
I used one for a while. It kept waking me up saying I was dying from low blood sugar at 2.4mmol (43mg/dl). Turns out if you sleep on it, it stops working, but the location means sleeping on my left side or my back causes it to fail.
Then, during the day, it says I'm at 9mmol (162mg/dl), but when I finger prick test to confirm it's only 7.2mmol (130mg/dl).
I just took it out after 6 days because it was completely inaccurate in my case. Maybe it's just incompatible with my biology or something, either way it was a waste of money for me. Makes me wonder if it has a similar problem as those finger pulse monitors, where it only works for certain skin types?
In my experience, "sleep experiments" are practically impossible if you live with any other humans. Your schedule kind of has to follow everyone else's, otherwise you end up lying awake in bed for hours with a eye mask and earmuffs while everyone else is stomping around lol
Humans slept twice in history because it made sense at that time. During winter, it was dark for 14 hours, which is way more sleep than what most people need. It also made sense to wake up and tend to the fire etc.
Humans in other situations, even modern hunter gatherer tribes, are very flexible with sleep. Some sleep through the night in one block, staying up later. Some wake up very early. Some take shifts or wake up multiple times during the night. It's a relatively modern concept that every person must sleep exactly 8 hours in one block; the reality is everyone's circadian rhythm is different. This was a beneficial trait for most of our history; it helped survival if a few people were awake during different times of the night.
The problem is, that we now all have clocks in our pocket, and time-based obligations. You can't go to bed at sundown, because you're probably still at work at that time, and haven't even eaten yet. You can't sleep in, because you have to get ready at 5am. If you wake up during the night, it's just a loss of sleep hours, there's no fire to tend anymore. As a society, we've also decided that sleep is a waste of time, and tried to replace it with caffeine.
I dunno what the solution is, but it's definitely a problem.
Yep, but it would take careful planning. Like, actually listen to the smart people who know how to design a long-term sustainable system, rather than just chasing profit at all costs.
It's not even that hard to do, just let people do the right thing. Every researcher that says "we could fix this", we automatically assume that voice will be ignored at best or crushed at worst, but it doesn't have to be this way.
Mr. Moneybags here with 6 kids, each with their own Nintendo Switch
This was basically me growing up, only difference is I'm male. Only solution I ended up with was a whole ecosystem of coping mechanisms.
I tend to find that people end up figuring out what works for them just via trial by fire, which is unfortunate but effective I suppose. For example, I know my memory is extremely bad, so I don't bother remembering anything. I just assume my memory will fail me and set alarms and calendar reminders and leave my meds where I can see them and food on the main shelf and apps all on the home screen in folders etc. If it's not immediately visible, it simply doesn't exist. I completely stop conversations to take notes and such, even if it annoys people.
That's just for my memory. I have other techniques for all the other problems I have.
Private browsing mode usually deletes cookies after you close the tab. It's a decent compromise
Oh yeah ads are horrible…
Actually, a pro tip I discovered years ago, when live TV was the thing, and you had so so many unskippable ads. Either cut the sound or the visuals. Mute the TV during ad breaks is the easiest solution, it makes it much less overwhelming (buy now buy now buy now!!!). If you can't do that, try closing your eyes. I found that reducing sensory input by 50% really made it much more tolerable!
Honestly I just read things at random. Lots of places have "free trials" so to speak so you can figure out if it's for you. Some books I never thought I'd enjoy but ended up liking it
Yeah I have my own share of unhealthy stims for stressful situations… also seconded for having to know what caused a noise. Thankfully I'm pretty good at identifying sounds at this point, but the occasional investigation still occurs
Agreed! I become incapable of speaking and just get horribly confused. You reminded me though, Benn Jordan did an interesting video on this concept.
Ok, I forgot about this one. Seconded to "tasting" bad textures. It's like I hate the texture of cheap carpet so much, I feel it with my entire body when I touch / hear it. The feeling of scraping your socks by accident on carpet… it's so dry and horrible. I just get someone else to do the carpet rubbing lol
Nice carpet I don't have this problem though, only the cheap stuff
Just to clarify any misunderstanding, I wasn't saying exposure therapy as a treatment in general is "torture yourself until you get used to it". I was (poorly, apparently) trying to say that I'm hesitant to deliberately increase exposure to sounds that cause me significant physical symptoms, especially since pushing through them can lead me with migraines for days.
I understand exposure therapy is usually gradual and controlled, and I'm sure it helps many people. My concern is that this seems more like sensory overload from sudden loud sounds, rather than fear or anxiety around specific sounds.
I genuinely appreciate the suggestion, I just don't think it's necessarily the right approach for my specific situation.
Never heard of misophonia so I looked it up:
It doesn't sound quite right, since it's more to do with the loudness of any sound, especially if it's sudden, rather than specific sounds. I think just loud sounds are overwhelming for me, and it causes me distress. I attributed it to autism sensory issues. Even just being in a loud room is very uncomfortable, but somewhat tolerable.
I don't see a specific need to expose myself to torture to "toughen up", so to speak. I wear earmuffs about 20% of the day, taking them off and putting them on as needed. If I experience too much loud sounds, I end up with extremely bad migraines and am unwell for days. Before I bought the earmuffs, this condition never improved, so I'm not sure exposure therapy would ever help in my instance.
Thanks for the advice though, I'm sure it might help somebody out there.
I also cannot use in-ear earphones, but because it feels really unnatural. I hate earbuds and earplugs too. Nothing goes in my ear holes 👂 ❌
I'm not alone! Yeah I had this perfect wooden spoon… but someone put it in the dishwasher. It got all this "piling" lumpy and sad dense texture and became unusable. I never found a good replacement, only compromise spoons. My current spoon is too long, and the handle is too thin, and this will mildly bother me forever
Of course lol. I try and copy the Japanese voice actors
I read video game dialogue out loud for kids like a storybook. Also anime subs that have no official dub, it can get pretty silly
I cri evere tim
Yeah I was looking at that. But I have prediabetes / insulin resistance, and in my local area, nobody cares until your pancreas completely kicks the bucket. Prevention of disease isn't really a thing here. That's why I went out and bought my own sensor, just to see what was going on. It was useful for seeing like, wait why did my blood sugar spike after breakfast? Oh I didn't realise overcooked oats were high gi. I changed it to raw oats in warm milk which is much smoother on the graph. But I would never qualify for that device because my problems don't show up on the 3 month A1C test. And after I optimised the 3 foods that were more spike-y than the rest, I had no use for the inaccurate glucose monitor.
I used one for a while. It kept waking me up saying I was dying from low blood sugar at 2.4mmol (43mg/dl). Turns out if you sleep on it, it stops working, but the location means sleeping on my left side or my back causes it to fail.
Then, during the day, it says I'm at 9mmol (162mg/dl), but when I finger prick test to confirm it's only 7.2mmol (130mg/dl).
I just took it out after 6 days because it was completely inaccurate in my case. Maybe it's just incompatible with my biology or something, either way it was a waste of money for me. Makes me wonder if it has a similar problem as those finger pulse monitors, where it only works for certain skin types?
In my experience, "sleep experiments" are practically impossible if you live with any other humans. Your schedule kind of has to follow everyone else's, otherwise you end up lying awake in bed for hours with a eye mask and earmuffs while everyone else is stomping around lol
Humans slept twice in history because it made sense at that time. During winter, it was dark for 14 hours, which is way more sleep than what most people need. It also made sense to wake up and tend to the fire etc.
Humans in other situations, even modern hunter gatherer tribes, are very flexible with sleep. Some sleep through the night in one block, staying up later. Some wake up very early. Some take shifts or wake up multiple times during the night. It's a relatively modern concept that every person must sleep exactly 8 hours in one block; the reality is everyone's circadian rhythm is different. This was a beneficial trait for most of our history; it helped survival if a few people were awake during different times of the night.
The problem is, that we now all have clocks in our pocket, and time-based obligations. You can't go to bed at sundown, because you're probably still at work at that time, and haven't even eaten yet. You can't sleep in, because you have to get ready at 5am. If you wake up during the night, it's just a loss of sleep hours, there's no fire to tend anymore. As a society, we've also decided that sleep is a waste of time, and tried to replace it with caffeine.
I dunno what the solution is, but it's definitely a problem.
https://www.sleepjunkie.com/history-of-sleep/
Mmm directly at fart level
Yep, but it would take careful planning. Like, actually listen to the smart people who know how to design a long-term sustainable system, rather than just chasing profit at all costs.
It's not even that hard to do, just let people do the right thing. Every researcher that says "we could fix this", we automatically assume that voice will be ignored at best or crushed at worst, but it doesn't have to be this way.